How to Watch CNN's New Year's Eve Cover With Anderson Cooper, Andy Cohen

It may be cooler than usual, but CNN is still planning to ring in the new year. The cable news giant is gearing up for its traditional year-end coverage of New Year's Eve celebrations across the country.

CNN will begin live New Year's Eve coverage at 8 p.m. AND on Friday, December 31. Viewers who pay for the cable channel can stream live through the CNN website, CNN OTT, CNNgo, or other mobile apps. The special will also be available on demand the day after the broadcast via CNN.com, CNN apps and cable operator platforms.

From 8:00 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. ET, coverage will be hosted from Times Square in New York City by Anderson Cooper, a role he's held on the channel since 2002. Featuring him will be "Look What Happens live!" host Andy Cohen, who is the channel's second New Year's Eve host since 2018, after CNN fired Kathy Griffin following the 2017 Donald Trump decapitated head controversy.

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At 12:30 p.m. ET, Cooper and Cohen will hand over the coverage to Don Lemon, current host of CNN This Morning. Lemon will report live from New Orleans as the Central Time Zone city hits New Year's Eve.

A variety of live musical performances and interviews with celebrities and actors will be sprinkled throughout the evening. Ava Max will perform live from Times Square, while a performance from Usher's Las Vegas residence at Park MGM will air. Ellie Goulding will also perform. Other guests scheduled throughout the night include Kevin Hart, Patti LaBelle, REO Speedwagon, Nick Cannon, Jenifer Lewis, John Stamos, Jack Black and Kyle Gass of Tenacious D, Jean Smart and Cheri Oteri.

Although Cohen and Cooper would still be allowed to have a few drinks throughout the night, CNN would encourage sobriety among fellow reporters during this year's New Year's coverage. In recent years, the channel's coverage has generated considerable buzz on social media for the looser restrictions on presenters and correspondents working overnight, leading to memorably chaotic segments of typically buttoned-up CNN talent. Lemon, in particular, has made headlines in the past for getting his ear pierced on camera and going on rants against "haters".

At a town hall meeting in November, CNN CEO Chris Licht, who took over the channel in May, reportedly told staffers that he wanted his first New Year's Eve on the channel is a sober affair, fearing that past incidents could damage the company's "respectability" as a news source. Cohen, during a "Watch What Happens Live!" episode shortly after City Hall's information was released, in response that he plans to "party harder" than in previous years on December 31. However, while some may be hoping for a segment like last year, where the 'Real Housewives' executive producer called Bill de Blasio the "shitniest" mayor in New York City history, Cohen thinks he'll quit. to drink alcohol this year.

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